The myths and facts of ... dementia

Dementia is a word thrown about for everything from memory loss to being stuck for words. Helen O’Callaghan looks behind the diagnosis

More people in Ireland are living with dementia than would fit in the Aviva Stadium. One in two Irish people know or have known someone with dementia – yet only one in four of us feel we have good understanding of what dementia is and what it isn’t.

This big gap in public knowledge means we don’t know the point at which normal age-related memory loss becomes severe enough to be deemed dementia. We don’t know the risk factors for the disease – and we don’t know whether or how we can protect ourselves against it.